From the Beginning: My E36 Build

[M.Burroughs]

April 1, 2007:

Front lip on. Car was kinda coming together... from the front at least.

[hinrichs]

this will be soo much fun to watch where the car came from, subscribed

[M.Burroughs]

April 15, 2007:

I went full-retard and blacked out my kidneys.



I also started telling the people of bimmerforums that I was "working on a big mod".

What was this big mod?

Well, it wasn't an S52... Nope.. it was an....

Active Autowerkes s/c kit. I figured the TS kit made more power than the S52 with cams. this made sense to me. Who knows why.

[ff_drift_lol]

looks sick, and i know there's a lot to come. awesome.

[M.Burroughs]

April 17, 2007:

This is where it all started. This is where my modding career would take a turn to what we know today.
Why?

Well, I had always loved e30s on 16x9 type As... and I thought I hit the jackpot when I found these: (in Erik's driveway)



Obviously I wasn't the first to have them, but I had never seen a set on an e36 before, and neither had anyone else on bimmerforums. I thought I was hot stuff.



The problem was the tire size... the tires that were on them were too big. How was I going to fit these wheels?!

Oh and look at the little spot on my front lip...
raccoon blood.

[M.Burroughs]

May 5, 2007:

On May 5th, 2007, it was decided...

Looking for S/Cs, money saved up.. I was talking to my dad. He came up with the idea of doing the Euro S50 swap... oh, what a grand idea it was. 321hp? I had to do it.

We were on the hunt, ebaying it up, and thats when we found it. An S50B32 in italy with only 6000km on it.

We spoke with the seller and were ready to send the money.. so we asked him to take the ad off ebay.

Well, he said he'd leave it up and just use it to sell another one of his motors, that it didn't matter.

Well, things were getting fishy and at this point I was sure we wouldn't be getting the 6000km motor we were bidding on.



And then my my dad says "what about an E46 M3 motor? I found one..."

And that was that. Georgia, here we come.

[M.Burroughs]

May 15, 2007:

My dad flew down from Missouri to head to GA with me to pick up the motor.
We had a new Ford with a trailer in tow to pick 'er up.



The engine strapped to the trailer. Dirty, but solid.


We scored the engine, 6-speed transmission, the wiring harness, gauge cluster, EWS system, and pretty much everything else for $7500.
The best part was the engine had 19k miles on it.

[dfreshx00]

I need to see the rest of this. awesome build thread so far

[M.Burroughs]

May 28, 2007:

After more sliding around, I took some pics with the Borbet Cs on.

The car was getting ready to go under the knife.

[M.Burroughs]

July 1, 2007:

These are the final photos taken before the car's deconstruction began. I had finally gotten the proper size tires on the type As... 215/40/17 ZRis

[M.Burroughs]

July 13, 2007:

Deconstruction. Erik helped me pull the motor, as it was my first time doing such a thing. Had it out in about 3 hours.



Disconnecting the harness:


Cooling system out:


Car up:


Tug job:


Empty:

[PHAS3D]

subscribed as well! Give em hell mike! hahha

[00bmw323]

so exciting!!

[M.Burroughs]

July 28, 2007:

I ordered the first needed part. Motor mount arms from a S54 Z3.



Here's a comparison between the M50 arm and the S54 arm.




Cleaning the engine bay:
I wish I had done a better job while the motor was out. Live and learn...


I mounted the new arms and did my first test fit of the engine (no trans, no headers).

[M.Burroughs]

Oct 28, 2007:

A lot of time had passed. I was still in high school, worked every day, had to save money to make stuff happen!

UUC 8.5lb flywheel:


Installing:




UUC solid race engine mounts and trans mounts. "Not for street use"



Going in:


In again!: